Rings which are said to improve circulation in the fingers and those which accomplish or mimic acupuncture treatments are known.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,175 describes a ring which has serpentine connecting portions between parallel plates upon which a plurality of protuberances are formed on the inner sides of the plates the ring is said to promote the circulation of blood by acupressuring randomly selected positions of the fingers by means of the protuberances.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,852 is another example of a ring having internal protuberances for acupressuring randomly selected positions of the fingers.
The human body has a number of arterial channels linked to various organs of the body by collaterals which emerge from the main channels.
One such channel extends from the outer finger via the arm to and is communicable with organs such as the heart, small intestine, eyes, ears and to sinus regions via collaterals.
The application of pressure to the channel of the outer finger is known to have a therapeutic effect on various organs and regions of the body.
Casual therapeutic treatments making use of channels and collaterals are commonly administered using acupuncture and massage techniques.
How Acupoints were Discovered
When examining their patients, the ancient Chinese practitioners felt pulsation at arterial loci (pulsing points). They believed that this pulse was caused by a vital force, which they called Qi. The difference between life and death was due to the presence or absence of Qi and all parts of the body were connected by a Qi channel or vessel. These ancient doctors diagnosed by palpating the arterial loci (pulsing points) and then they needled these points to treat a disease. Since they could not feel the pulsation along the entire presumed Qi channel, they postulated lines of connection between the acupoints on the loci of arteries, thus making a visible map of the unseen parts of the channel. Different practitioners in different times and places evolved their own ways to connect together the acupoints which they had identified, and this gave rise to a variety of theories to explain the channels or meridians. Even today traditional Chinese medical doctors are trained to feel this arterial pulsation, though only on the radial artery proximal to the wrist. The pulsing points of arteries were the earliest acupoints.
The Origin of Channel or Meridian Theories
Early acupuncture theories were formed from empirical experience. For example, ancient doctors found that for treating pain or other symptoms of the genitals, lower abdomen, and lumbar areas, needling certain pulsing loci on the dorsum of the foot and medial part of the lower leg was more effective than anywhere else. Thus they drew lines to connect the effective needling points with the parts of the body that were most affected by the needling, making a visible representation of the channel which connected all the points together. In this example the arterial points on the dorsum, the medial leg, the genital area, the lumbar area, and up to the tongue were joined together and thus the “liver channel”, or “liver meridian,” was gradually formulated. The other eleven meridians that are used today evolved in a similar way.
The theory of meridians, or channels, became one fo the cornerstones of TCM. As there were many different ways to delineate the same channel there were soon many different theoretical explanations. In his reconstruction of the development of ancient acupuncture practice Professor Huang shows that the ancient Chinese used the same character “mai” (•) to represent both “channels” and “blood vessels”. In most Western textbooks, the character “mai” has been translated as “meridian” or “channel”. Even today, acupuncture practitioners must learn a large and complex map of Qi channels (meridians) and other medical principles that are based on the ancient Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine. 
No treatments or objects have been proposed which are designed to apply continuous pressure to the arterial channel in the outer finger.
It is according an object of the present invention to provide a therapeutic ring which is adapted to apply pressure to the channel in the outer finger on a continuous basis.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example.